Basically, that's it. I start the game, all the intros and main menu is in a small window with a black border. I expect this, as my other PCs begin the same way. However, using my other laptop, the game stays in this window, even while playing. Been screwing around with my .ini with no luck, also have the latest drivers for my graphics card.

Been searching for a solution for about an hour now and I haven't had any luck.

Specs are
Pentium M 1.8GHz
2Gigs of RAM
ATI Mobility Fire GL T2
Windows 7 x86

Have you tried different resolutions, or Alt-Enter ?

Yes, I've tried alternate resolutions and alt-enter. Alt-Enter simply causes the game to wig out and changing the resolution doesn't actually change anything at all. Moreover, I'm having to manually input resolutions via the .ini, as I have no resolution selection in my configuration options.

Thanks

Have you tried running As Admin and in Win XP Compatability?

Yes and still no luck with either or both

Check the control center for the video card and see if the options 'Enable GPU scaling' and 'Maintain aspect ratio' are available. If so, try enabling them.

It appears that I have no such options in my Catalyst Control Center.

But, progress?

I messed around with my desktop resolution and now NWN is starting in windowed mode. It seems to ignore the settings in my .ini file, as no matter if I set it to fullscreen=1 or fullscreen=0, it starts in a window. I'm thinking, the reason for my problem was that NWN was starting in a window and then full screening without really showing me and thus the problem with the small viewing area; as, when I full screen NWN from a window, it goes full screen, but looks the same.

I'm thinking this is specifically to do with my lack of ability to select a resolution and thus, the game is defaulting to 640x480 and then simply full screening everything. My laptop likes to maintain its aspect ratio no matter what I set my resolution to, so I'm thinking this is what is happening with NWN.

It's definitely related to my inability to select a resolution for the game. I figured out that what I thought was the initial problem is due to some scaling issues with ATI cards; namely, that they want to keep a proper aspect ratio. After turning that off, NWN starts full screen and remains that way, however, I still can't select a proper resolution. It's stuck in 640x480 and is ignoring any changes I make to the .ini file.

Could be your GPU isn't fully capable of running the game.

How old is this system?

Approximately seven years old. However, I'm skeptical of that, as it plays WoW perfectly fine, as well as many other newer games (Recettear for example, also Civ 4)

Also, the game runs and is playable, I simply find playing at 800x600 on a 1400x1050 screen, unacceptable.

You might have better luck if you first set the desktop resolution to something the game recognizes, like 1280x1024. If the game can't hande/understand your desktop resolution, it'll default to 800x600 no matter the settings.

Just tried to start the game and I had exactly the same problem as the OP.

My system (dxdiag):

------------------
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B55 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
------------------
Display Devices
------------------
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (EAH 6850 with 1GB RAM to be exact)
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Model: TOSHIBA-TV
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (50.000Hz)
Output Type: HDMI
Driver Version: 13.152.1.8000

I found the Aspect Ratio option in the driver menu btw (you have to change the resolution to something lower than 1920x1080 for that option to show) but it changes zero. I didn't find any option to override the game's scaling settings in the CCC though.
Changing the resolution in the game inis didn't do anything, nor did applying compatibility settings to the game's exe files.

I'm completely out of ideas, seems this game wants to be smarter than my video driver while being completely outdated...

I'm having the same problem on Windows 7. I haven't found a solution yet and can't even find the "maintain aspect ratio" in the nvidia driver thing.

What screen or monitor are you using, & what is it's native resolution?
In the Nvidia Control Panel, what options do you have under Display?
Does it have "Adjust desktop size & position?

See the pic of mine.

I'm using a laptop actually, not sure what the name of the monitor would be. It's an alienware laptop. This picture shows my nvidia control panel and native resolution: http://screencast.com/t/jpakBYHBPum .

This nvidia control panel is very different from the nvidia on my desktop computer, which doesn't have the same problems. But my desktop's graphic card died which is why I'm trying to work this laptop. :[